Kid Country St Johns

Education institution number:
47235
Service type:
Education and Care Service
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
78
Telephone:
Address:

40 Morrin Road, St Johns, Auckland

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Kid Country St Johns

1 ERO’s Judgements

Akarangi | Quality Evaluation evaluates the extent to which this early childhood service has the learning and organisational conditions to support equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners. Te Ara Poutama Indicators of quality for early childhood education: what matters most are the basis for making judgements about the effectiveness of the service in achieving equity and excellence for all learners. Judgements are made in relation to the Outcomes Indicators, Learning and Organisational Conditions. The Evaluation Judgement Rubric derived from the indicators, is used to inform ERO’s judgements about this service’s performance in promoting equity and excellence.

ERO’s judgements for Kid Country St Johns are as follows:

Outcome Indicators

(What the service knows about outcomes for learners)

Whāngai Establishing

Ngā Akatoro Domains

 

Learning Conditions
Organisational Conditions

Whāngai Establishing

Whāngai Establishing

2 Context of the Service

Kid Country St Johns is a privately owned and operated service. A general manager is responsible for governance, management, and daily operations. The centre manager is the curriculum leader and leads a team of 13 qualified teachers. A small number of Māori and Pacific children are enrolled.

3 Summary of findings

Children participate in a range of experiences that offer appropriate challenge, both indoors and outdoors. Teachers provide opportunities for children to make choices and be involved in decision-making about their learning experiences. Their positive interactions with children support children’s sense of belonging and the development of meaningful relationships.

Teachers carefully guide older children’s developing social competence, emotional wellbeing and understanding of appropriate behaviour. Infants and toddlers experience calm and caring interactions with teachers. Teachers maintain well-paced routines that allow these younger children to have space and time to explore.

Some teachers integrate te reo Māori and aspects of tikanga Māori into their teaching approaches and daily centre routines. Leaders are continuing to encourage teachers to strengthen these practices.

Children and families from diverse cultural backgrounds benefit from a curriculum where their languages, and cultures are valued. Teachers are developing how they record this in assessment documentation. 

Leaders and teachers have established respectful relationships with parents and whānau. They provide some opportunities for parents to share their aspirations for children’s learning. Establishing
learning-focused partnerships with parents and whānau would allow teachers to better plan to support children’s learning. Leaders also recognise the need to align the service’s curriculum with the learning outcomes identified in Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum.

Leaders have developed good systems that guide service operations. They review policies, processes and systems in collaboration with teachers and parents. Leaders are working towards developing, with teachers, a shared understanding of how to use internal evaluation to inform improvements to teaching practices. This should include evaluating and monitoring the impact of changes made on improved outcomes for children.

4 Improvement actions

Kid Country St Johns will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

  • Continue developing curriculum assessment, planning and evaluation processes that align with the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki.

  • Seek and respond to parent and whānau feedback, and their aspirations for children’s learning, including documenting how the curriculum responds to children’s languages, and cultures.

  • Evaluate the effectiveness of teachers’ bicultural practices and seek ways to improve this aspect of the curriculum.

  • Build shared understandings about how to use internal evaluation systems to continuously improve teaching practices.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Kid Country St Johns completed an ERO Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:

  • curriculum

  • premises and facilities

  • health and safety practices

  • governance, management and administration.

During the review, ERO looked at the service’s systems for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children's wellbeing:

  • emotional safety (including positive guidance and child protection)

  • physical safety (including supervision; sleep procedures; accidents; medication; hygiene; excursion policies and procedures)

  • suitable staffing (including qualification levels; safety checking; teacher registration; ratios)

  • relevant evacuation procedures and practices.

All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.

Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

11 November 2022 

About the Early Childhood Service

Early Childhood Service Name

Kid Country St Johns

Profile Number

47235

Location

St Johns, Auckland 

Service type Education and care service

Number licensed for

100 children, including up to 32 aged under 2

Percentage of qualified teachers

80-99%

Service roll

85

Review team on site

August 2022

Date of this report

11 November 2022

Most recent ERO report(s)

Akanuku | Assurance Review, April 2019

Kid Country St Johns - 18/04/2019

ERO’s judgement

Regulatory standards

Curriculum

Meeting

Premises and facilities

Meeting

Health and safety

Meeting

Governance, management and administration

Meeting

At the time of the review, ERO found the service was taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.

Background

Kid Country St Johns is licensed to provide full-day care and education for up to 100 children, including 32 aged under two years. There are five separate rooms and two outdoor spaces. The community is culturally diverse. The service is privately owned by a company that owns one other centre. This is the first ERO review of this service, which opened in September 2017.

Summary of review findings

Adults providing care and education demonstrate an understanding of children’s learning and development, and knowledge of relevant theories and practice in early childhood education. They engage in meaningful, positive interactions to enhance children’s learning and nurture reciprocal relationships.

The design and layout of the premises support the provision of different types of indoor and outdoor experiences. These include quiet space, areas for physically active play, and space for a range of individual and group learning opportunities.

A framework of policies and procedures is monitored, and practices meet regulatory standards in all aspects of centre operations.

Next ERO Review

The next ERO review is likely to be an Education Review.

Steve Tanner

Director Review and Improvement Services Northern

Northern Region

18 April 2019

Information about the service

Early Childhood Service Name

Kid Country St Johns

Profile Number

47235

Location

Auckland

Service type

Education and care service

Number licensed for

100 Children, including up to 32 aged under 2

Percentage of qualified teachers

80% +

Reported ratios of staff to children

Under 2

1:4 - Better than regulatory standards

Over 2

1:9 – Better than regulatory standards

Service roll

103

Gender composition

Boys 57% Girls 43%

Ethnic composition

Māori 6%

Pākehā 41%

Chinese 16%

British 5%

Latin American 5%

other ethnic groups 27%

Review team on site

March 2019

Date of this report

18 April 2019

Most recent ERO report(s)

 

First ERO review of the service

General Information about Assurance Reviews

All services are licensed under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008. The legal requirements for early childhood services also include:

Services must meet the standards in the regulations and the requirements of the licensing criteria to gain and maintain a licence to operate.

ERO undertakes an Assurance Review process in any service:

  • having its first ERO review – including if it is part of a governing organisation

  • previously identified as ‘not well placed’ or ‘requiring further development’

  • that has moved from a provisional to a full licence

  • that have been re-licenced due to a change of ownership

  • where an Assurance Review process is determined to be appropriate.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

All early childhood services are required to promote children’s health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements. Before the review, the staff and management of a service completed an ERO Centre Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:

  • curriculum

  • premises and facilities

  • health and safety practices

  • governance, management and administration.

As part of an Assurance Review ERO assesses whether the regulated standards are being met. In particular, ERO looks at a service’s systems for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children's wellbeing:

  • emotional safety (including positive guidance and child protection)

  • physical safety (including supervision; sleep procedures; accidents; medication; hygiene; excursion policies and procedures)

  • suitable staffing (including qualification levels; police vetting; teacher certification; ratios)

  • evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.

As part of an Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:

  • discussions with those involved in the service

  • consideration of relevant documentation, including the implementation of health and safety systems

  • observations of the environment/premises, curriculum implementation and teaching practice.